Adult Attachment Is Not Associated With Conditioned Pain Modulation in Healthy Females in a Neutral Social Context

Individuals with chronic pain are both more likely to have an insecure adult attachment style and impaired conditioned pain modulation (CPM) than pain-free individuals. This is the first study to investigate a link between attachment and experimental pain using a conditioned pain modulation (CPM) paradigm in a neutral social context. Impaired CPM was not seen in pain-free individuals, suggesting that impaired endogenous analgesia may develop from chronic pain, rather than cause chronic pain.